The present invention relates to an aircraft seat convertible to a bed.
For the avoidance of doubt, in this specification, the term “squab” is used to mean the upholstered portion of a seat, on which an occupant of the seat rests his/her weight.
Many proposals have been made to convert an aircraft seat into a bed. Generally these involve reclining a seat into a flat or nearly flat position. An example of such a seat is described in our prior European Patent No 1,074,468 (“Our Earlier European Patent”). It is known to go further than merely angling the three elements of a seat, namely the backrest, squab and leg rest. For instance in International Patent Application No WO 03/013903, in the name of Virgin Atlantic Airways Limited, there is a proposal to configure the seat such that the seat backrest folds forwards for conversion to a bed, with the bed portion being formed by the backrest of the seat backrest and other surfaces (see FIG. 5 of the Virgin publication). These include the folded forwards headrest, an ottoman or foot rest and a triangular area normally behind the backrest.